Organ Cases

David Bridgeman-Sutton muses about organ cases - big and small, old and new. The first in a series.Parallel Movement, Contrary Movement and Pedal Note

Fig. 1

The congregation admired the "plain gold pipes, charmingly arranged" of the organ in St Christopher's College. (The organist was murdered during the service that followed, but not because of his "vague and opiate improvisation". The story is told in Edmund Crispin's The Case of the Gilded Fly which, like the same author's Holy Disorders, is essential reading for all organists.)This arrangement of pipes would have used one ~ or more ~ of the three basic pipe layouts. The Parallel Movement of pipe tops and mouths is most frequently used when an instrument stands in within a pointed arch and is illustrated in Figure 1.

This instrument, typical of thousands in small churches, has the minimal casework (known as "piperack") where the front pipes are arranged in a row over panelling that hides and protects action and windchests. Shorter pipes have shorter feet, thus producing the parallel movement. It is an arrangement rarely used by the makers of the great organ cases of Holland, Germany and France or of modern cases.​

Contrary Movement is seen in the modern case at Christchurch Priory (Dorset, England). (Figure 2) This is by Nicholson of Malvern and suits the substantial Norman church: the introduction of the round arch motif beneath the case, reflecting those of the nave, is a good touch. The pipe mouths rise as the pipe tops descend, producing a better balanced design than would parallel movement. The silver-coloured pipes, long preferred by builders on the European mainland, produce a much lighter effect here than would the painted and stencilled variety.Martin Setchell gave one of the first public performances on this organ in 1999.

Fig. 2

Pedal Note is illustrated in Figure 3, a charming modern case by J.W. Walker , of Brandon Suffolk for their new instrument in St Paul's Lutheran Church, Newark, Delaware USA. Here the pipe feet in the main, lower compartments are all of the same length, resulting in mouths running in a straight line. Here, parallel straight lines in the upper compartments provide a kind of harmonic to the fundamental.

This is one of the oldest arrangements in organ building and may be found in illustrations to mediaeval psalters and in many interior views of churches made in subsequent centuries, though the use of additional upper compartments occurs only in larger instruments.It is, of course, the basis of the case at Christchurch (NZ!) Town Hall. In an organ case this size, it would probably have been impractical and certainly monotonous to have carried the straight line unbroken across the entire front. (As the instrument is shaped to the curved wall behind the effect of the straight line would have been distorted anyway.) The interspersing of smaller compartments at other levels, each of which has its mouths in a straight line, provides unity within diversity - the aim of all case designers.

Fig. 3

David Bridgeman-Sutton,September 2002

Acknowledgements:Thanks are due for the provision of photographs and for permission to use these to Nicholson & Co of Malvern (Figure 2) and to J.W. Walker & Sons Ltd, Brandon (Figure 3).